The Hunger Games: An Interpretation
by BerryCoffeeCake
Summary: Something that after reading the piles and piles of articles and comments online, I felt I had to write. This is not me bashing any of the Characters or anything like that. It's not me doing a whole lot fruitless complaining about how bad people on the internet are. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the series. Please enjoy. Review. Message me and tell me what you think. -Berry


**The Hunger Games Trilogy: An Interpretation**

A/N: I'd like to start this off by saying that unlike many, I wouldn't exactly call myself a 'fan' of this trilogy. I watched the first movie a few months ago and got interested enough in the story to by the e-books online. This was a mistake on my part now that I look back at it as I'm the soft-hearted, deep-thinker type. The message the books conveyed was a little much for me. I was kinda depressed for a while thinking about all the horrible things that happened to these characters. What made it even worse…was that the people that claimed to be 'fans' of this series didn't seem to pick up on any of the things going on in the story beyond what the movie versions of the characters looked like and the 'Games' themselves. Some of you will likely say, after reading my little essay "Who does she think she is?", "Why so sensitive? It's just a book. Fake story not real."

I'm no one. Just an avid reader, living out her daily life working and going to school. And I'm not sensitive. Just tired of reading the crap you people call 'articles' on the internet.

**The Hunger Games 1**

_Peeta and Gale_

People talk about it all the time. Both in the net and outside of it. Why can't she just make up her mind everyone asks? _Obviously_ Gale is the one she should choose. No! She should choose Peeta! Peeta is the best choice! _Screw _Peeta. He's weak. Gale's a hunter. A survivor like Katniss! _He _should be chosen! It should be Peeta! He's kind! And loyal! And sweet! Choose him!

…Why does she have to choose anyone? Why does every story involving any female lead _have_ to involve one or more romantic interests? Is this more to satisfy female fans? Male fans? Or the Author's own ideals about romantic love? The answer is all three. Peeta and Gale are polar opposites of one another. If you've done more than watched the movies…which many of you have not it seems..you know this. Gale is the fire. Peeta is the dandelion. One is gentle and peaceful. Easygoing. The other is spiteful, full of anger. Boiling over with political passions. Gale satisfies the need in man for challenge. For action. And the need in women to feel protected. Peeta is the other half of the spectrum. The emotionally stimulating part. The part that when you're drooling over how good Liam Hemsworth looks on screen…or thinking about how 'hawt' it would be to see Gale naked..you miss out on the importance of entirely. Suzanne Collins had a story to tell. And I believe…an interesting point to make wherein it concerns Katniss's relationship to these two. It's not about which one of them is stronger. It's not about which one looks better. Or who's smarter. It's about who compliments everything that Katniss is…best.

The love story, for people interested in that, is really only a small piece of a whole. It is not, and was never intended to be a main focus. 'Team Peeta', 'Team Gale'? Let it go guys. For those of you who have not read the books…please…I implore you…read them. Get something out of it other than the sordid details of an awkward teenage love triangle.

_Rue, Thresh, Rue's Family, and the People of District 11_

Rue's death…some of the more bigoted of you out there will be surprised to hear I'm sure…was the saddest part of the first book for me. She was only twelve years old. A little girl. A_ child._ Put in a pit with a bunch of other starving kids and forced to fight to the death. She had a family who loved her. A mother, a father. Brother's and sister's that like her one time partner and friend Katniss, she wanted to protect. She eeked out an existence in what was described as one of the most difficult and dangerous to live in Districts where the people who lived there weren't allowed to eat the crops they slaved over. Where a boy who was 'not quite right' was shot dead for taking a pair of luminescent sunglasses to play with. Where people are publicly whipped in front of their families.

…But it's okay. Rue's black. The people in District 11..are all black. So it's okay. It's not sad at all that Rue…a 12 year old _child_ died. Because she's _black_. And who cares about black people? Right? Who cares about Thresh? Who cares about the Grandmother he left behind? Who cares that Rue's family will never see her again? Hear her voice? Hear her singing in the trees during harvest? Who gives a damn? Rue and Thresh are black.

What's wrong with you people?.. I know what you're thinking. You're wondering why I'm making such a big deal about something only a hand-full of people kicked up a fuss about? I'm making a big deal out of it because it's ignorant. Just flat out _ignorant_ that anyone..anyone at all would make comments like this:

_"Why is Rue a little black girl? Stick to the book, dude."_

_"Why did the producer make all the good characters black?"_

_"Ewwww rue is black? I'm not watching."_

The internet is supposed to be our door to unlimited amount knowledge. A way for people who couldn't otherwise do so to express themselves in unique and interesting ways, better themselves through the uploaded experiences of another. It also, unfortunately is a window into the thoughts and ideals of just as many who have nothing better to do than make troll comments on forums and websites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. A rant about how much people on the internet piss me off would last forever and take me completely away from the main focus of this paragraph, so I'll end it here by saying just one more thing as concerns the comments made towards the actors and actresses of color in this film.

Rue and Thresh were both described as being characters of color. If you couldn't get that from the descriptions given of them in the book…then you didn't read it. Either that or you don't read as well as you think you do.

Peeta

Yes. I'm going to write about Peeta. Do I like Peeta? Yes. I do. Do I like him better than Gale? Yes. As a matter of fact I do.

What the hell's so great about dumb old Peeta I'll bet you wanna know? He's not a fighter. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed. He can't shoot a bow. He can't forage. He can't hunt. He's weak. Katniss always has to save him. Peeta…is a nobody. His parents don't care about him. Why they didn't even want to move into the victors village with him when he came home! They didn't even visit! His own mother didn't even think he'd come back! And his dad? Peeta's dad didn't give him any cookies before he left for the Capitol. What's so great about Peeta? I'll tell you.

Peeta is a great person. A great character for all the reasons people believe he isn't. Peeta is not what you think of when you think of as a strong man. He's an advocate of peace. He's kind. Easy to get along with. He's not moody and complicated like the other representations of men you see in stories. He doesn't have a dark past. He isn't a tortured soul. He's not a revolutionary. He's just plain old Peeta. If every male on the planet were as complicated as Edward Cullen and Lestat no woman would ever be happy. Not really. We have enough daily rituals and pageantry to go through. We have enough of our own complicated emotions and shit to sort out without some angry twenty-something, emotionally challenged, douche-wad adding to it. These characters are always the same. They don't wanna love, they wanna possess…feed on and leach off their partners. Peeta did not force his affection onto Katniss. He gave it, and when it wasn't reciprocated, stepped away. Consented to being her partner and friend. He loved her still of course, and when things came to a head did all he could to try keep her alive in his own way. Peeta's an idiot?.. Could an idiot have camouflaged himself so well into the landscape it looked like he was part of it? Could an idiot have distracted the Career tributes for as long as he did, helping to keep Katniss alive?

You guy's think Peeta's weak for being in love? Since when was loving someone..caring enough about them to wanna save their life a moral failing? When did it become 'manly' to not have feelings? Peeta's not weak. Like Katniss, he took lives. Like Katniss he sustained injuries. Like Katniss…whether he had to be helped or not…he _survived_. Both the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell. And the Quell with a gimp leg no less. He lay under his camouflage for days with that gash in his leg. That says something about his personal strength in itself.

I know this isn't enough evidence for some of you. You'll talk Peeta down into the depths of the earth. Even after the last movie comes out. And that's okay. You're all entitled to your opinions. But consider this last before you write me off as another 'Peeta Sympathizer'. Look at Peeta more in terms of a person. More in terms of a human being rather than as 'Katniss's girl-friend'. Look at the story as a _whole_. For every Johanna Mason. For every Gale…you _have_ to have a Peeta. Somewhere out there has to be a voice of reason. Peeta is the voice of reason in this trilogy. Don't agree or don't see how it could be? Read for crying out loud! Process the words on the page!

**Catching Fire 2**

A/N: For some reason..anytime The Hunger Games is brought up in conversation somewhere in the hundreds upon thousands of comments going over the same mundane crap, the topic of whether or not Katniss's abilities are an accurate representation of women in combat _always _seems to come up. And when it's not that it's people whining about how she's indecisive. 'Can't make up her mind' and all that shit. Romantic relationships…race…how people look. Gender stereotypes—this is _not_ what this series is about. It's just a bunch dumb stuff the lot of you have chosen to concentrate on because you're too soft in the head to see anything else. The big picture really becomes clear in the second installment.

_The Capitol_

You've all seen the movies. You know what the people of the Capitol look like. You've seen their brightly colored wigs. You've seen the plastic surgeries gone wrong. You've seen Effie Trinket trotting around in all those outrageous dresses.

Do you remember Plutarch Evansbee's _description _of the Capitol as whole? If you don't know what I'm talking about..read the books. Or do what you always do and wait for the movie. I'm sure they'll mention it.

"_Panem et Circenses."_ Bread and Circuses. The Capitol supplies its citizens with food and entertainment. It keeps them happy. Distracted from any real, pressing problems they may have. They are all spoiled pigs. So unused to hardship they take a medicine at parties to vomit up any food they eat so they can continue on consuming. Anything and everything they want. Nothing is too good for a citizen of the Capitol. This is a reference to the old Roman Empire and was exactly the way in which Emperors controlled their citizens. That was the purpose of all the land grabbing. That was the purpose of the Coliseum and all the other grand building projects they undertook. It was about control. Keeping your sheep fat and distracted so they can't see what rot they're living in. The Romans had these battles to go and watch every day. They could see prisoners of war eaten by lions. They could see a man pulled apart by hyena. Gored by a bull. They even got to see men forced to fight..enclosed by four chained lions keeping them from running away. _Crucifixions _were done in these arenas. Gladiators..the _champions _of Rome fought each other to the death. Just like Katniss, Peeta, Rue, Thresh, Cato, Glimmer and all those others fought and died…poked and prodded by their slavers to kill or be killed.

What does it say about us as people that we enjoy watching things like this? That we enjoy reading stories about people being killed and mistreated? Are we as desensitized as the citizens of the Capitol? You're asking yourself why I'm taking this so seriously. Why I feel it necessary to ask these kinds of questions about a work of fiction. It's not real. Who cares about the message? It's fake. No one's really died. And the world isn't like that now.

Yeah. It kind of is. Think about how much you hear people complaining all the time about Congress. About the Affordable Care Act and all that…and yet never doing anything. No one votes. No one really protests or tries to come up with any ideas to challenge anything. Why? Because we're distracted by other things. Facebook. Twitter. Working. Going to school. Eating. Shitting. Pissing. All that stuff. Something always seems to be in the way. Game of Thrones is on. Your pizza just showed up. It's Christmas time. You gotta get you're gifts. You just got the new Warcraft expansion pack.

It may not be the same type of distraction. We don't make people fight to the death or enslave anyone. But it's there. Just enough to keep us from being interested in politics. Cuz' why would we wanna listen to that? It's depressing as fuck. Boring. .

_Katniss_

It's hard for me to talk about Katniss. 'Suck it up ya' fuckin baby', you must be thinking. I wonder if anyone will say that at the end of the next movie? The last one?..

I won't spoil it because I know there are a lot of people out there who haven't read the books and are using the movies as a crutch, but I will say I'm pretty sure…that unless you're just an emotionless bog monster there'll be more than one scene that'll squeeze a tear or two out of you.

I like Katniss. Not just for her abilities and the fact she happens to be female, but for the person she is. What kind of person is she? I honestly can't say right off. That's why I say it's hard for me to talk about her. More than anything as I read I felt sorry for Katniss. She was put in the middle of a situation she had no control over. Unlike a normal teenager she never had the opportunity to figure anything out. About anything. Other than surviving. She was in charge of feeding her family. She was in charge of keeping Prim safe. Later..she was put in charge of trying to convince a restless eleven other districts that she was in love with a boy she didn't really know and hadn't taken the time to know. Katniss never had time to ponder life. She never had time to figure out if she would ever be good at anything else other than hunting and gathering. Katniss's whole entire life is a mountain of suffering that climaxed at the worst rather than at the best. In a nutshell…I guess I would say she's…tragic. And misunderstood by a lot of people it seems.

She's a 'Bitch that can't make up her mind'. She's 'Indecisive'. A 'Cheating ho'.

If your family was being threatened by the government would which cock you want up your vag really be the upmost on your mind? Katniss is many things. But a 'bitch' and 'ho' are not anywhere in the description. She lacks compassion. She's volatile. Kind of mean spirited. But not a bitch. Not a whore. Just a really, _really_ unlucky teenage girl.

Read the books. Please read them. Get something out of them other than this trivial nonsense you babble about all day long.

Thanks for reading,

L.B


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